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I can’t stop the huff of indignation that comes from me. “Yes, your bride. You know, the woman you’re supposed to marry next month.” I can’t keep the disgust from my voice. I knew I was mad, but I hadn’t realized how bitter I was about this whole situation too.
Add to the fact he was acting like he had no idea who I was and I was basically a volcano ready to erupt.
“My mother agreed to an arranged marriage?”
“Put simply, yes.”
“And you’re the bride?”
I look down at myself, gesturing to the dress. “Who else would I be, Cohen?”
“Connor.”
“Excuse me?”
“My name is Connor.”
My mouth opens, but no words escape. All my anger and annoyance dissolve in seconds, replaced by shock and embarrassment.
“Oh. I’m sorry. My stepmother…she always…though it’s no surprise,” I sputter before catching myself. The fact Rina couldn’t even be bothered to tell me my future husband’s correct name is just the icing on the she-doesn’t-give-a-damn-about-me cake.
“But your last name is Blackwood, correct? Eldest son to Eloise Reynolds-Blackwood?”
He doesn’t answer right away, instead focusing on me as he closes the last few feet of distance between us. Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, he studies me. I’m two stairs up from him but we’re eye to eye. This secretly thrills me, sending tingles of awareness to places in my body long dormant.
His tongue peeks out, swiping long his plump lower lip and I follow the action. Not proud of myself but unable to tear my gaze away.
“Yes, Eloise is my mother. I’m Connor Blackwood.”
Words fail me; I’m still too stunned by his closeness and his friendly manner. So I nod, silently telling him I believe him.
“You’re going to have to tell me who you are, angel. Unfortunately, my mother didn’t share this good news with me and I’m at a bit of a loss.”
Still in my haze, I reply without thinking. “Ivy. Ivy Lucinda Maria Heartford.”
Slowly, ever so slowly, a smile grows across his face. His eyes are sparkling with newfound knowledge and delight. I’m almost hypnotized by it.
Almost.
Because as he smiles at me, it hits me: I wonder how he’ll take the news that we need to marry as soon as possible since someone is trying to kill me.
Chapter Three
Connor
My mother is an evil genius.
Though she’s clearly up to something if she sent this beauty to my door instead of Cohen’s. She must be the “new project” he was talking about this afternoon. How delightful.
Here I was, thinking about how I needed to maybe move out of town or venture out more to meet someone special and then she miraculously shows up at my doorstep.
If this wasn’t fate…well, correction, it was my mother. But damn the timing was almost alarmingly perfect. I don’t know if I should be grateful or suspicious. Nothing good in life comes this easily…but I wanted what she was saying to be real.
I’m positive there are purely selfish reasons my mother has arranged this marriage—like possibly getting the grandchildren she’s always on Cohen and me about—yet at the moment I can’t help but silently praise her.
Even with a background and profession built on blood and mayhem, I am a sentimental man at heart. Longing to find someone to spend my life with. A partner for all the ups and downs life will inevitably throw. Ivy might just be it.
Her dark, thick hair falls past her shoulders in large curls and her green eyes blaze with determination. The dress she’s wearing is covering up almost every inch of skin, hiding her body from me, but that doesn’t matter. It’s her small smile that has my heart rate speeding up and my curiosity piqued.
